IT would be unfair to Ayr to say that they barely had to break a sweat in the process of marching into the Premiership play-off final in three weeks’ time. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this thoroughly convincing victory was their unrelenting workrate.

They were powerful, tactically astute and completely focused. They had a mission to complete and you got the distinct impression that a runaway juggernaut would have struggled to knock them off their chosen path yesterday. Their reward is a winner-takes-all home match against Heriot's on April 23.

Melrose may have finished fourteen points behind their opponent during the regular league season, but they had every right to enter this game brimming with confidence after last week’s 20-13 BT Cup victory at the same venue, which was their fourth success on the bounce against the Millbrae men.

There was, however, a distinct lack of composure about the Borderers early on. They may have dominated possession during the first ten minutes, but some aimless kicking and slack basic skills meant they could not break out of their own half.

Ayr, on the other hand, were ruthless when they got a chance, with Rob McAlpine burrowing over from close range to give the hosts the lead in the 14th minute, and Frazier Climo getting in on the act with the conversion and a long-range penalty almost immediately after the restart, which went in off the right post.

Melrose desperately needed a spark of inspiration to calm their nerves and shift the momentum, and Tom Galbraith did his level best to provide that with an electrifying break from deep just short of the 20-minute mark. A couple of quick phases would surely have been enough to fully split Ayr’s already ragged defensive line, but the home team defused the situation. They may have conceded a kickable penalty in the process, but that was a price they were willing to pay and it didn’t even come to that because Joe Helps badly miscued his shot at goal.

More profligacy followed when the visitors twice kicked penalties to the corner and lost two line-outs on the opposition line. Ayr had Melrose’s scrum on the rack, and that yielded another penalty for Climo on the half-hour mark.

Climo then piled on the misery for Melrose when he charged down what should have been a routine clearance kick for the hapless Nyle Godsmark, and then won the footrace to ground the ball just before it bounced over the dead ball line. The Kiwi stand-off hit the post with the conversion, but that didn’t even register as a road-bump for the now rampant hosts.

Ewan McQuillin had been sent on at tight-head prop in an attempt to secure Melrose’s disintegrating scrum, but the situation seemed beyond rescuing, with Climo kicking a second penalty on the stroke of half-time to make it 21-0 after another hopelessly one-sided set-piece.

A deliberate knock-on in the first minute of the second half allowed Mill to kick three points for Melrose, but Ayr marched straight back upfield, kicked a penalty to the corner, caught the line-out, and rumbled over the whitewash for Will Bordill to score try number three.

It all looked so easy, and Ayr’s next score was even slicker, with Scott Sutherland collecting the ball at the line-out, David Armstrong sweeping round the tail and Junior Bulumakau charging on with plenty power and pace,before Pete McCallum appeared on his left shoulder to cruise under the posts unchallenged

Melrose had nothing left to play for but pride, and they deserve credit for picking themselves off the deck to battle out the last 15 minutes. They even grabbed a consolation score through Ruaridh Knott. They endured one more painful body blow when home captain Ross Curle intercepted inside his own 22 and ran the length to score in the corner.